1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to systems, devices and methods for communication.
People like to communicate with others. Hearing and speaking are forms of communication that many people use and enjoy. Many devices have been proposed that improve communication including the telephone and hearing aids.
Hearing impaired subjects need hearing aids to verbally communicate with those around them. Open canal hearing aids have proven to be successful in the marketplace because of increased comfort. Another reason why they are popular is reduced occlusion, which is a tunnel-like hearing effect that is problematic to most hearing aid users. Another common complaint is feedback and whistling from the hearing aid. Increasingly, hearing impaired subjects also make use of audio entertainment and communication devices. Often the use of these devices interferes with the use of hearing aids and more often are cumbersome to use together. Another problem is use of entertainment and communication systems in noisy environments, which requires active noise cancellation. There is a need to integrate open canal hearing aids with audio entertainment and communication systems and still allow their use in noisy places. For improving comfort, it is desirable to use these modalities in an open ear canal configuration.
Several approaches to improved hearing, improve feedback suppression and noise cancellation. Although sometimes effective, current methods and devices for feedback suppression and noise cancellation may not be effective in at least some instances. For example, when an acoustic hearing aid with a speaker positioned in the ear canal is used to amplify sound, placement of a microphone in the ear canal can result in feedback when the ear canal is open, even when feedback and noise cancellation are used.
One promising approach to improving hearing with an ear canal microphone has been to use a direct-drive transducer coupled to middle-ear transducer, rather than an acoustic transducer, such that feedback is significantly reduced and often limited to a narrow range of frequencies. The EARLENS™ transducer as described by Perkins et al (U.S. Pat. No. 5,259,032; US20060023908; US20070100197) and many other transducers that directly couple to the middle ear such as described by Puria et al (U.S. Pat. No. 6,629,922) may have significant advantages due to reduced feedback that is limited in a narrow frequency range. The EARLENS™ system may use an electromagnetic coil placed inside the ear canal to drive the middle ear, for example with the EARLENS™ transducer magnet positioned on the eardrum. A microphone can be placed inside the ear canal integrated in a wide-bandwidth system to provide pinna-diffraction cues. The pinna diffraction cues allow the user to localize sound and thus hear better in multi-talker situations, when combined with the wide-bandwidth system. Although effective in reducing feedback, these systems may result in feedback in at least some instances, for example with an open ear canal that transmits sound to a canal microphone with high gain for the hearing impaired.
Although at least some implantable hearing aid systems may result in decreased feedback, surgical implantation can be complex, expensive and may potentially subject the user to possible risk of surgical complications and pain such that surgical implantation is not a viable option for many users.
In at least some instances known hearing aides may not be fully integrated with telecommunications systems and audio system, such that the user may use more devices than would be ideal. Also, current combinations of devices may be less than ideal, such that the user may not receive the full benefit of hearing with multiple devices. For example, known hands free wireless BLUETOOTH™ devices, such as the JAWBONE™, may not work well with hearing aid devices as the hands free device is often placed over the ear. Also, such devices may not have sounds configured for optimal hearing by the user as with hearing aid devices. Similarly, a user of a hearing aid device, may have difficulty using direct audio from device such as a headphone jack for listening to a movie on a flight, an iPod or the like. In many instances, the result is that the combination of known hearing devices with communication and audio systems can be less than ideal.
The known telecommunication and audio systems may have at least some shortcomings, even when used alone, that may make at least some of these systems less than ideal, in at least some instances. For example, many known noise cancellation systems use headphones that can be bulky, in at least some instances. Further, at least some of the known wireless headsets for telecommunications can be some what obtrusive and visible, such that it would be helpful if the visibility and size could be minimized.
In light of the above, it would be desirable to provide an improved system for communication that overcomes at least some of the above shortcomings. It would be particularly desirable if such a communication system could be used without surgery to provide: high frequency localization cues, open ear canal hearing with minimal feedback, hearing aid functionality with amplified sensation level, a wide bandwidth sound with frequencies from about 0.1 to 10 kHz, noise cancellation, reduced feedback, communication with a mobile device or audio entertainment system.
2. Description of the Background Art
The following U.S. patents and publications may be relevant to the present application: U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,117,461; 5,259,032; 5,402,496; 5,425,104; 5,740,258; 5,940,519; 6,068,589; 6,222,927; 6,629,922; 6,445,799; 6,668,062; 6,801,629; 6,888,949; 6,978,159; 7,043,037; 7,203,331; 2002/20172350; 2006/0023908; 2006/0251278; 2007/0100197; Carlile and Schonstein (2006) “Frequency bandwidth and multi-talker environments,” Audio Engineering Society Convention, Paris, France 118:353-63; Killion, M. C. and Christensen, L. (1998) “The case of the missing dots: AI and SNR loss,” Hear Jour 51(5):32-47; Moore and Tan (2003) “Perceived naturalness of spectrally distorted speech and music,” J Acoust Soc Am 114(1):408-19; Puria (2003) “Measurements of human middle ear forward and reverse acoustics: implications for otoacoustic emissions,” J Acoust Soc Am 113(5):2773-89.